Malliotakis reveals homelessness plan

Story and photos by Gregg McQueen

She’s got HOPE.

Republican mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis has unveiled a plan to tackle homelessness in the city –dubbed HOPE for “Helping Our People Excel” – calling Mayor Bill de Blasio’s handling of the issue a “bureaucratic failure” and “national disgrace.”

Malliotakis, a State Assemblymember of Cuban and Greek heritage who is taking on de Blasio in the 2017 mayoral race, held a press conference outside City Hall on June 29 to introduce the proposal.

She slammed de Blasio for allowing the homeless population of the city to balloon to more than 60,000 people since taking office.

More than 60,000 individuals have been identified as homeless.

“It has become very sad to see fellow New Yorkers sleeping on our streets, in our subway stations, in our transit hubs, as well as underneath expressway ramps,” said Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and a small section of Brooklyn in the Assembly.

“We’re seeing not a proactive approach by this administration; we’re seeing a very reactive approach,” she added. “But the reality is that homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.”

Malliotakis, who was named one of American Conservative Union’s “Top 10 Under 40” in 2013, called for the establishment of pop-up intake centers in each borough for assisting homeless individuals, and a Homeless Outreach Task Force to search for street homeless and connect them with services.

She also said that if elected, she would work with Governor Andrew Cuomo to revive the New York/New York Agreements, which were used to create supportive housing in 1990, 1999 and 2005. She said a fourth installment could be enacted to create 30,000 units of supportive housing.

“It is a model that works,” she said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a new plan in February.

Malliotakis said that under de Blasio, the Police Department has become lax in dealing with people sleeping on the street and subways, creating a quality-of-life issue.

“I am telling you that they are not being as aggressive as they were under previous administrations. It’s obvious,” Malliotakis said.

“Let the NYPD do their job,” she stated.

For Malliotakis, whose bid for the Republican nomination in the mayoral race received a boost when challenger Paul Massey bowed out on June 28, the proposal marked the first policy platform she has released during her campaign.

The candidate said she disagreed with de Blasio’s plan to build new homeless shelters.

“Number one on my list should be to not do what this current mayor’s doing,” Malliotakis said. “I don’t support this mayor’s plan of building 90 homeless shelters across the city.”

Malliotakis also wants to limit the number of nights that homeless individuals can be sheltered in hotels to seven, and shake up public housing by downsizing people in under-occupied apartments to make room for families.

She has proposed a Task Force to connect homeless individuals with services.

Malliotakis was vague about several aspects of her plan – she was unable to provide an estimated cost for her proposals, and offered no suggestions on where she would house people transitioning out of shelters or hotels.

She did mention that her plan could be paid for by reallocating money from other homeless initiatives not getting results. “We need to shift money from programs that aren’t working,” she remarked.

De Blasio has vowed to cut the number of people in homeless shelters by 2,500 over the next five years. Malliotakis suggested she could get better results by focusing on job programs that could keep people from homelessness in the first place.

“I would point to the vocational training options,” Malliotakis said. “We can partner with unions to create apprenticeships.”

“I think there are some nonprofits right now that there are waiting lists for,” she added. “People are eager to get out of the shelter system. They want to work.”